Case Studies & Testimonials

US Inspect Sees Opportunity in the Cloud

US Inspect is the nation’s leading employee-based inspection services firm, delivering residential, relocation, and commercial inspections since 1987. We deliver more than 80% of all corporate relocation inspections.

With headquarters in northern Virginia, and supported by a selective network of offices and inspection teams nationwide, our reputation is built on decades of honesty, integrity and excellent service to our customers at one of the most important decisions in their lives – buying a home. We are committed to ensuring that each of our customers enjoys an exceptional inspection experience.

Demonstrating strong commitment to project management, AscentPath extensively planned and tested to ensure that there were no disruptions to services and that the deployment would succeed across a broad set of platforms and configurations. This commitment paid off, resulting in the successful migration of hundreds of users.

The project was completed under budget and resulted in significant cost savings and improvements in productivity. After the migration, all of US Inspect’s employees had access to all of the tools and content they needed to be productive from anywhere, on any device. This was particularly valuable to the firm’s nationwide network of inspectors who were recently provided Android tablets in alignment with US Inspect’s mobile-first, cloud-first strategy. Office 365 and OneDrive unleashed the potential of these new mobile devices transforming each from a helpful, but limited tool into the complete productivity platform US Inspect had envisioned. In addition, everyone on the US Inspect team was delighted that their inboxes had swelled to a whopping 50GB each. The need for individuals to archive email was history, eliminating potentially hundreds of unproductive hours per month.

Having gained confidence in the Office 365 platform due to the success of the email and Skype for Business migration, US inspect continued the transformation by rolling out Office 365 Groups and SharePoint Team Sites across the organization. This project provided collaboration, file sharing, shared calendars, task lists and more to US Inspect’s employees.

The Challenge

US Inspect, the nation’s largest employee-based inspection services company, has been helping its customers make some of the most important decisions of their lives since 1987. When JB Haller, Chief Executive Officer, took on the task of transforming the company’s IT infrastructure, he knew the firm had some very important decisions of its own to make.

US Inspect’s IT Infrastructure was dependent on a large on premises infrastructure whose costs and management overhead had become a challenge. JB saw the current state as an opportunity to dramatically improve operations and believed a strategy that shifted the firm’s focus from on-premise solutions to a more flexible and cost-effective cloud-centric platform would result in a significant increase in the business value and return on investment (ROI). Haller explained, “US Inspect is in the business of delivering phenomenal customer experiences for residential, relocation, commercial and government customers.” One of our objectives was to leverage off-the-shelf technologies to help us deliver high-quality experiences. JB knew that successfully executing on this strategy would first require a bottom-up review of the firm’s entire IT infrastructure and a detailed plan for achieving his vision for a cloud-centric US Inspect.

JB was referred to AscentPath based on the firm’s reputation for successful cloud transformations. To support US Inspect’s cloud strategy, AscentPath performed an end-to-end IT portfolio review, identifying opportunities for significant cost savings and performance improvements. The end result of this analysis was an IT Transformation Roadmap that, when completed, would radically transform the company’s IT strategy and infrastructure over the next 12-18 months.

Convinced of the plan’s potential, JB and AscentPath communicated the benefits and high expected ROI of this roadmap to the rest of US Inspect’s leadership. Excited by the benefits of the roadmap and its potential, US Inspect’s leadership team gave JB their support in moving forward.

Our Solution

The first stop on US Inspect’s transformation roadmap included deploying Azure Active Directory and migrating on premises email, and Lync (now Skype for Business) services to Office 365. Before migrating US Inspect’s email and communications, AscentPath deployed Azure Active Directory (AD). Azure AD became the new flexible backbone of the firm’s IT infrastructure allowing on-premises and cloud resources to coexist and be accessible by users through a single sign-on. This gave US Inspect unprecedented flexibility, allowing the firm to combine cloud and non-cloud resources, easily move users and services between the two platforms, all while providing a strong foundation for US Inspect’s cloud-centric future.

With a strong foundation in place, the time had come to build, just as with the homes and commercial properties of US Inspect’s customers. AscentPath moved on to the migration of email and Skype for Business. With a national network of inspectors, US Inspect’s remote employees resided throughout the country and controlled devices including laptops, desktops, and tablets.

The Results

As a result of US Inspect’s Azure AD Office 365 implementations, the firm has reduced annual IT infrastructure costs by over 70% and provided its employees with an impressive set of new capabilities. While building a foundation and moving email to the cloud were the primary goals of the project, US Inspect’s employees have begun using many more of the features of Office 365.

OneDrive and Office Online have seen heavy use from a workforce that is highly mobile, while SharePoint and Office 365 Groups have provided collaboration opportunities for small, temporary teams and large departments alike.

Copyright 2015 AscentPath, Inc.

Services Rendered

[AscentPath’s] attention to comprehensive planning, user engagement, and training really paid off. It’s just the beginning of our transformation plan, but we are already seeing measurable results. Thanks to Office 365 and AscentPath, we’re off to a great start.